The music industry

There's another revolution afoot in the music industry. And wouldn't you know it -- Apple is leading the charge again.

The first upheavalIt

The first upheavalIt was big news when Apple's iTunes music store passed traditional leaders Wal-Mart and Best Buy to become the largest distributor of music in the world. iTunes brought the beginning of the end of shuffling physical artifacts like CDs, LPs, and 8-track tapes through evenly physical stores. Independent record stores are a dying breed; Tower Records and its ilk are in the main dead already. And Billy Crystal isn't going to save them.

Let's get it started!And now the straightway evolution of digital music is upon us: Apple and Google are moving our music libraries into the cloud. It's all so very Web 3.0.

The service is akin to carrying a large memory card around at all times, packed with up to 20,000 songs. Except there's no card -- all you need is an Internet connection, and you're good to go.

Sirius XM Radio subscription or a Pandora feed

Unlike a Sirius XM Radio subscription or a Pandora feed, you control specifically what you want to hear at once. You're not depending on some potentially incompetent DJ to spin the good stuff. Sirius fans will rightly point out that the service works only as long as you have a decent Internet connection and will fill up metered data plans to put it more exactly quickly. However if those concerns don't bother you, this could very so then be your ideal music service.

Apple thinks differentApple's version of the same idea doesn't quite exist but, because the company is working to remove a potential problem that Google did an end-around run on.

Numerous reports say that Apple already nailed down licenses for a service like Google's with three out of the four major record labels. Universal Music Group is the supposed holdout, and it's as well the largest music company in the world.

Given that Apple most likely will pay license fees to both labels and publishers for its cloud-based music service, the company will probably slap a fee on the service itself. Google hopes to avoid all of that by simply providing a place for users to store their music and a simple way to consume it. The company has no licenses in place, reportedly isn't even discussing them with the music industry, and hopes to skirt by on the fact that you already own the materials in question.

With or without service fees, Apple could beat Google with a better service. With all the proper licenses in place, Apple could simply scan your music collection and at that time give you access to a centrally stored copy of the same stuff. No slow uploading, no fuss, no muss -- nevertheless you're paying for the privilege.

Who will win?Apple's proposed service sounds a lot like a Netflix for music. For a low monthly fee, you can stream your songs where, when, and how you like it. The fees would have to be lower than the $9.99 charged by Rhapsody or the $5 that Best Buy's Napster service asks for. Taking everything into account, you're supposedly only gaining access to your own paltry collection of a few thousand songs and not the multimillion-tune library of those other services.

If Apple can't do this for free, that gives Google a serious leg up. There are too many free music sources out there to make an expensive one worthwhile, from terrestrial radio to Pandora -- in other words, assuming that Google Music survives the inevitable legal challenges. The service looks a lot like good old MP3.com, which used a similar method and legal tactics nevertheless was forcefully shut down by the courts.

The Google service

I'd prefer the Google service, and I believe that I should have the right to move my legally purchased music files into any medium I want. Nevertheless Apple is not taking any chances, and its negotiations might pave the way for a flood of similar services once the licensing precedents have been set.

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the entire IT industry, and this musical showdown is just the latest example. Take a minute to watch this free video right now, and you'll walk away with a richer understanding of the cloud model.